Zombie Love
by LadyKayoss
Summary: Aki is determined to live happily ever after with her beloved... Even if it means raising the dead to do it.
1. Aki Ross Reanimator

Disclaimer:  All characters within belong to Square.  There's nothing I can do to change that.  I don't own them.  And I'm definitely not worth suing, either.

Author's Note:  Happy Halloween.  I know, I don't need to start writing yet more multi-chaptered fics, but they keep coming to me and won't go away!  And, since so many of them are Halloweenish, I didn't think I should wait until, say, Christmas, to upload them.  This is for the gals in the General Hein group, especially Ntrophi, who at one time had a strange zombie fetish that left an impression on me (remember Boyer as the Queen of the Zombies?), and Ovo, who may be the only person who'll get the Lovecraft references.

ZOMBIE LOVE

Part One

Aki Ross – Re-animator

Aki wound her way through the crowd of reporters, the false smile seemingly permanently etched on her features.  Why wouldn't the idiots leave her alone?  Yeah, she'd saved the world, yeah, they all owed their safety to her, yeah, she deserved their gratitude, blah, blah, blah…  But she didn't want their gratitude.  Gratitude didn't fill that empty void inside of her that had once been filled by love.  Gray was gone, and these people wanted to celebrate!

She was the hero of every man, woman, and child around the world.  But she didn't feel like a hero.  Weren't heroes supposed to live happily ever after with the people they loved, together, forever, in a pure, perfect world?

"No comment," Aki muttered to one particularly persistent newswoman who asked what she planned to do with her life now that she'd done what she'd committed her life to accomplishing.  The truth was, Aki didn't know.  She'd always thought that maybe, just maybe, after she and Sid unleashed the spirit wave, she'd have the courage to find Gray, to apologize and tell him the truth, and maybe, just maybe, begin a new life with him.

Aki finally made it to the lobby of her apartment complex, sighing in relief as the managed shooed the reporters out.  Aki tossed the man a grateful smile before heading towards the elevator and up to the small, Spartan room she currently called home.  _Home._  There's something else I need to think of.  Now that the Phantoms are gone, I can find a home.  _But not here in Houston, where she was worshipped when she walked down the streets by citizens she'd never met.  Even the military went out of the way to do things for her.  It was frustrating!_

Though she had to admit, there were a lot of good looking guys in the military…  _Argh!  What am I thinking?  Gray's barely been dead a week and I'm already thinking about crawling into some other guy's bed?  _Irritated, Aki flopped down onto her bed, grabbing a pillow and clutching it to her chest.  _But I am lonely.  I can't live the rest of my life like this.  Dr. Sid's right, I need to find someone.  But it's so hard to find someone who would want me for me, and not just to say they were dating the savior of the world.  _Her lips curled into a wry smile.  _It's a pity Sid's so much older than I am; he'd be perfect, really.  Nowhere near as hardheaded as some military guys I know.  _

_Okay, now I've left the realm of sanity.  _Aki just groaned and rolled onto her back.  She wondered if it was worth getting undressed, then decided against it.  She was going to have to go back to the lab in five hours anyway; why bother?  It was better to just try and get as much sleep as she could right now.  Yeah, sleep…  In her dreams, she could forget just how lonely she really was.

*    *    *

The alarm woke Aki from dreams that hadn't cooperated with her intentions; they'd all been about Gray, and Ryan and Neil and Jane…  And Gray…   And, strangely, General Hein, as well.  She hadn't known her subconscious thought of him that way… Wearily, she slid out of bed, fumbling for the alarm and knocking the clock off her nightstand.  She felt like she hadn't gotten any sleep at all.  Why had she even bothered to come home?

She ran her fingers through her hair and then smoothed her wrinkled Miskatonic University sweatshirt.  It was all she gave herself time for before she left for the lab.  The reporters were gone, she noticed with relief.  Good; she didn't want the entire world to see her looking as if she hadn't changed in days.

The drive to the lab was quick; she knew the route well, and could have done it in her sleep.  She had a moment of panic when she thought she'd left her security pass behind, but found it after a moment's harried searching.  Just why had she crammed it into her boots, anyway?

Dr. Sid had arrived before her, and the holographic equipment had already been activated.  He smiled when he saw her and said, "Don't worry; I didn't check the results yet.  I wanted you to be here for that."

"Well, I'm here.  Let's see if it worked."  Aki took a potted plant out of a cabinet and placed it into the small scanner.  Dr. Sid activated the scanner, his face neutral as the image of the plant's spirit was projected before him.

Aki stood behind him, studying the image before them.  Had their experiment been a success?  It was hard to tell…  "I'll bring up the scan from five hours earlier."  She manipulated the glowing icons, and a similar scan of a plant spirit appeared beside the first.  Aki changed its color to red, then overlapped the two.  "Sid!" she gasped.  "Do you see it?"

"I see it," Dr. Sid said, his voice excited.  "Aki, we did it!"  

The plant had been a victim of a Phantom attack; much of its spirit had been ripped away, leaving only a pale glimmering that was enough to keep the plant alive.  But now, the plant's spirit glowed strongly, with many of the holes healed over, as if they'd never been there at all.  It wasn't completely healed, but the process was ongoing.  In a few more hours, they'd be unable to tell the plant had ever been damaged.  It was all thanks to the serum Aki and Dr. Sid had been working on for the past week.  So many people had been damaged by Phantom attacks, and natural regeneration happened too slowly.  Some had lost so much that they lay in a coma in hospitals.  But, with this, they'd be able to save lives.

Yay, she was a hero again.  Whoop-de-do…  Been there, done that…  What did it get her?  More emptiness inside.  

"Aki, are you all right?"  Aki suddenly realized Dr. Sid had been calling her name for some time.  She started guiltily, aware of the selfishness of her thoughts.  

"Yeah, I'm fine.  Just tired, is all."  Aki sighed and rubbed her brow.  "I haven't been sleeping well.  Dreams, you know.  I thought they'd end after all this."

"Gray?" Dr. Sid asked sympathetically.  Aki nodded, unsurprised at how well he'd read her.  He knew her so well, better than anybody.  Once again, she couldn't help but think he'd be the perfect guy if he weren't old enough to be her grandfather.  _Ugh.  I hope I'm having these thoughts because I'm tired, not because I'm lonely and desperate.  _

"Yeah.  I miss him.  He should be here," she said, her voice sorrowful.

Dr. Sid placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed comfortingly.  "I know.  I'm sorry, Aki.  Look, why don't you go home.  I shouldn't have asked you to come; it's too soon after the funeral."

"But this is all I have!  Sid, if I don't have my work to keep me busy, I'll… I'll go mad!"

"Aki…"  

"Please," Aki pleaded.  "I need to do this.  I don't think I can face going home tonight.  There's nothing there for me.  I can monitor the experiment for the rest of the night.  Why don't you go home, Sid?  You must be tired, too."

"Are you sure you want to be left alone?" her mentor asked, concerned.  "I could stay."

"I'm okay.  I'll just keep myself busy, and I won't even think about Gray.  Don't worry!"  She gave him a broad grin they both knew was fake, but Dr. Sid relented.

After he left, though, she knew she'd made a mistake sending him away.  The lab suddenly seemed cold and empty, and Aki felt small and alone in the giant, echoing room.  The lights were kept dim to make it easier to see the holograms, and without the constant glow of the barrier through the window, it seemed darker than normal.  The sad-looking plant before her was pathetic company.  "It's just you and me," she told it.  The plant didn't respond.  "So, what's it like being a plant?  I bet it's easier than being a human.  You don't have to worry about losing a loved one, or being lonely…"  She stopped suddenly, realizing what she was doing.  "Nor do you have to worry about your sanity when you start talking to plants.  Oh, God, I think I've lost it."

She folded her arms on the table in front of her and rested her head on them.  "Dammit," she mumbled to the table's surface.  It was less responsive than the plant.

Aki lifted her head, glaring at the offending plant.  It looked better than it had five hours ago, healthier with less droopy leaves and a darker shade of green.  She scowled at it.  "Well, look at you.  All it took was one little serum to bring you to life.  You think my problems can be fixed that easily?"

As what she'd said sunk in, Aki's eyes widened.  _What if I can fix my problems that easily?  This serum regenerates the spirit…  Could it work on dead tissue, too?  _

_No way…  It doesn't work like that.  It couldn't work…  If I weren't so exhausted, I wouldn't even be thinking something this insane.  Even if it did work, would I have that right?  Would Gray be the same person?  _But she had to test it out.  And she had to do it on her own; she doubted Dr. Sid would approve if he knew what she was thinking.  _I could reserve the lab at the end of the corridor and close it off; no one would ever need to know what I'm doing.  It has a freezer big enough to contain Gray's body…  No, the bodies._  _If I'm bringing Gray back, I may as well restore the rest of the Deep Eyes, too!_  Excitedly, Aki rose from her seat, going to the disposal unit where she'd dumped a victim of another experiment that hadn't gone quite right.  Aki dug through the waste and extracted a sorry excuse for a plant, withered and dry and completely without a spirit.  

She glanced up once at the clock, feeling devious.  Yes, she had plenty of time to do this; it was only two o'clock in the morning.  All she needed was for the plant to regenerate enough to show some spirit, she didn't have to wait for a complete regeneration.  Just enough for her to decide if she was going to spend tomorrow night grave robbing…

*    *    *

Two hours passed with nothing to show for it.  The plant was under the scanner, next to its nearly healed cousin, and there was nothing to show for it.  Aki paced the lab anxiously, rearranging equipment and then putting it all back to alleviate her boredom.

Another hour passed.  Nothing.  Aki's stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn't had anything to eat since lunch.  She ran to the vending machine down the hall, getting a bag of chips, then sprinted back to see if anything had happened while her back was turned.  The plant was still a dead thing, one that now looked rather worse for wear.  Two of its curled brown leaves had fallen off.

An hour and a half.  Aki could hear movement in the corridors below as a few early risers came to check on experiments left to run during the night.  She growled in frustration and stood stiffly, stretching to keep her mind on what she was doing.  She was dangerously close to falling asleep, and with her dreams, that was something she wanted to avoid.  She decided to occupy herself by checking out the lab she was considering signing out for her illicit experiment, should it be a success.  

It was still vacant, to her relief.  Once she requested its usage, she'd receive the key card to the lab and she could close it off so no one could interfere.  It was a small lab, but it had a large freezer in the back, which she was relieved to see was indeed big enough to hold four bodies.  She'd need it; it would take time to synthesize enough serum, and she didn't want them to rot.

Assuming it all worked.  Aki trudged back to Dr. Sid's laboratory, her heart heavy.  Why had she let herself get so excited?  It wasn't possible to bring the dead back to life.  She was doomed to never have the love and happiness she so craved…

Aki resumed her seat by the scanner, staring off into the distance, waiting for Dr. Sid to arrive.  Only minutes before he was due did she remember the plant she'd been using.  She'd have to dispose of it; she couldn't have him guessing what she'd been thinking.

Her hand reached towards the desiccated stem, then froze as she finally took in the image hovering in the air above it.

Barely perceptible, so small she wasn't certain she saw it at first, was a tiny speck of blue where there'd been none before.

*    *    *

It was a dark and stormy night (Aki had always wanted to think that!) when Aki rented a refrigerated van and took a shovel out to the graveyard where her beloved had been put to rest.  She found the four fresh graves quickly, and was relieved that they still looked fresh.  She didn't want anyone to know what she was doing yet.

With rain lashing her face and dribbling down her shirt, she began to dig.  The soft, wet earth came up easily, but water rapidly filled the holes as quickly as she dug them.  Soon, she was coated in slimy mud and standing ankle deep in cold water.  As she dug deeper and deeper, she cursed whoever had decided that six feet was a good depth to bury the dead.  Why not three feet under?  Or one?  Or why even bury them at all?  It was a barbaric custom!  The dead should be stored in convenient freezers for all eternity in case it became possible to revive them!

When her shovel finally scraped against something hard, she crowed in triumph.  With aching muscles, she cleared the top of the coffin, then thrust her fingers in the mud to fish around for the latches.  

The lid came open, and Gray was revealed, a dark form nestled against cream colored satin.  His skin was ashen, his eyes sunken.  But he was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, and with slippery hands, she pulled his body out.

She hadn't been prepared for how _heavy _his body was.  How can something that was now just an empty shell be heavy?  Groaning, she pushed his body up the crumbling, rain slick sides of the grave.  Her back _cracked _in protest, and she yelped in pain.  _Oh, man…  Did Dr. Frankenstein have to go through this?  But at last she was able to haul Gray's body into the back of the refrigerated van.  She shivered in the cold, but was in no hurry to leave.  She crouched beside Gray's still body, gently tracing the line of his cheek.  __Just a few more days, and we can be together again._

After she got her breath back, she reluctantly left the shelter of the van and retrieved the shovel.  She still had to cover Gray's grave, and dig up the others.  Aki hoped she could survive the process.

*    *    *

After two days, the serum was finally ready.  Aki had worn herself thin trying to synthesize enough.  The process required nearly constant supervision, and since she was still assisting Dr. Sid during the day, she had to do everything at night.  She estimated that she'd gotten, maybe, five hours of sleep over the past three days.  

Now she knew just what made mad scientists so insane…

She decided to start with Jane.  Though her heart yearned for Gray to be the first, if Aki had made a mistake with the serum, she wanted it to be on Jane.  She'd always thought the woman was a bit of a bitch, anyway.

Aki made certain the door to her leased lab was locked, then pulled out the first of the frozen bodies and laid Jane out on the operating table she'd set up.  Except for the thin layer of ice, Jane's body looked untouched by death.  The barbaric custom of morticians 'preparing' a corpse for the grave had been dropped, so everything was intact.  

She had to wait for the body to thaw enough to be flexible – well, as flexible as a corpse could be - before she could do anything.  She spent the time preparing the cabinet where Jane would be contained while the serum did its work.  She couldn't just leave the body out in the open, after all.

After a few hours, she judged Jane was ready for the serum.  Aki opened Jane's uniform jacket and pulled up Jane's shirt, revealing the smooth skin over her heart.  Then she took the beaker of glowing blue fluid from the cooler and filled a syringe with what she'd estimated was the correct amount.  

She'd decided the best place to make the injection was the heart.  Once the serum restored the organ, it would – theoretically – begin to beat again, and the serum would be spread through the arteries and veins throughout the body.  But it would take time, and Aki wouldn't see results until tomorrow.  Tomorrow…  Aki shivered in anticipation.  If Jane was showing signs of having a spirit tomorrow night, then she'd go ahead and work on Neil, and Ryan, and… Gray…

*    *    *

Night after night, she monitored the bodies.  The spark of life was slow to spread, and Aki was getting impatient.  It was getting harder to hide from Sid that she had leased the lab.  And then there were the dark rings under her eyes, and the blossoming coffee addiction that made her hands shake when she helped her mentor.  She'd already managed to spill dye all over Dr. Sid's fingers, and he was still wearing gloves to hide the blue stain.

But it would all be worth it.  On the fifth night after she'd injected the serum into Jane, she could see a definite change in the woman's body.  The skin had a healthier hue, and there was a warmth to the body that hadn't been there.  

Aki pushed the gurney holding the soldier to the scanner and transferred the body to the table.  Her hands seemed to operate the scanner on their own; she'd done this so often she could do it in her sleep.  If she could only _get_ that sleep…

The image that formed hovering above the body made her gasp.  Jane's spirit had nearly completely regenerated.

"So this is what you've been doing every night," a voice behind her said grimly.  Aki whirled, feeling like a scared rabbit under Dr. Sid's angry glare.

"H – how did you get in here?" Aki cried.  Her eyes darted towards the door.  

"You forgot to lock it," Dr. Sid said flatly.  "Aki, what were you thinking?"

"I just…"  Aki shifted her body to block his view, but he'd already seen everything.

"They're dead, Aki.  I assume that if Corporal Proudfoot is here, then Gray is close by, too."  Aki didn't reply, but her face gave it away.  "Aki," Dr. Sid said with a sigh.  "I know you miss Gray, but you can't bring him back.  He's gone, Aki.  Don't hurt yourself like this."

A soft sigh made both of them turn back to the table where Jane lay.  "That's impossible," she heard Dr. Sid whisper as Jane's fingers twitched, then curled toward her palm in a fist.  Above her, the suspended image of the spirit was whole.  As Jane's eyes slowly opened, Dr. Sid said, "Aki, what have you done?"

To Be Continued…


	2. The Not So Evil Dead

Disclaimer:  Aki and co. all belong to Square.

Author's Note:  Woo hoo!  It seems we have someone else out there who's familiar with Lovecraft! *grins at weyland-yutani*  For any who may be curious, this story was spawned by a conversation I had on romance novels, about how you can find them about vampires, and werewolves, and ghosts… but what about zombies?  Don't they deserve love, too?

Also… Curse you, Phi!  I didn't intend to bring Elliot and Boyer into this, but now I feel it's a challenge to fit them in somehow.  What did I do to deserve this?  And the horrible thing is, once you mentioned it, the ideas for how I could do it just threw themselves at me…

Y'know, this really is a comedy.  I just haven't gotten to the funny bits yet.  Really.  I promise.

ZOMBIE LOVE

Chapter Two

The Not-So-Evil Dead

Despite the fact that this was what Aki was hoping for, the scientist found herself latching on to Dr. Sid, digging her hands into his bony arms.  Jane's eyes fluttered, then opened completely.  For a moment, the irises were obliterated by the pupils, giving her a demonic look, then Jane blinked, and her eyes focused.  "Ungh?" the woman said, the noise a wet gurgle.  

"She's alive," Aki breathed.  Then, her voice bordering on hysteria, "She's alive!"

Dr. Sid extracted his arm from her death grip and rubbed his bruised flesh.  "Promise me you'll get some sleep after this; you're starting to scare me."

Oblivious to the sleep-deprived Aki and the horrified Dr. Sid, Jane slowly sat up.  "Wh…"  She spoke as if her tongue were too thick for her mouth.  "Where… 'm I?"  Both Aki and Dr. Sid turned, the elder scientist rushing to the soldier's side to steady her.  Aki was still too excited to do anything; all she could think of was Gray…  If the serum worked on him at the same rate as it had Jane, then he'd awaken tomorrow night.  

"You're freezing!" Dr. Sid said.  "Aki, do you have a blanket around here?  The corporal's skin is like ice."

Aki blinked.  "Yeah, I think so.  I've been spending so many nights here that I brought some bedding."  She pulled a folded quilt from the utility closet, offering it to Dr. Sid.  He wrapped it carefully around the shivering corporal, who tugged at the edges with seemingly nerveless fingers.  "Where… am… I?" Jane asked slowly, her words more pronounced.  

"The Bio-Etheric Center," Dr. Sid said softly.  He cast Aki an unreadable look.  "Dr. Ross has taken care of you while you recovered."

"The Center?  Not… not the… hospital?"  Jane's face had a curious expression; half of it was puzzled by her location, the other half was slack, as if the muscles didn't quite work.  

"You were attacked by Phantoms," Dr. Sid began.

Jane's eyes widened.  "The hangar!  Neil!  Ryan!  Did they… did we…?"

"They're all here," Aki interrupted happily.  "We won!  There are no more Phantoms!"  She giggled.

Jane stared at her.  At first, Aki thought it was disbelief that the war was finally over, then Jane said, "What the hell is wrong with you?  You on something?"

_Well, Jane is definitely recovering.  A shame her sarcasm is one of the first things to return_, Aki thought.  But nothing could ruin her mood tonight, not even Jane's ungrateful attitude.

"How are you feeling?" Dr. Sid asked, reminding Aki that Jane was a patient.

"I'm cold, and tired."  Her eyes were wide as she took in the lab, moving her head in awkward jerks.  "I don't want to be here."  She huddled into the blanket, shivering.

Dr. Sid pulled Aki aside.  "We can't tell her she died," he said softly.  "She's already in shock; telling her the truth could push her over the edge.  We need to get her out of here before the others revive and she figures out what's going on."

Sleep-deprived Aki may have been, but she could still see the sense in Dr. Sid's words.  "You're right.  But, Sid, we can't just take her to the hospital.  And she doesn't have a home here.  What do you suggest I do with her?"

Dr. Sid's eyes narrowed.  "You're the mastermind behind all this," he said coolly.  "Did you think about anything beyond having Captain Edwards returned from the dead?"

Huh.  Now that Dr. Sid had mentioned it, Aki hadn't thought about that.  "I was just gonna, uh, dispose of her body," Aki said weakly.

The old scientist could only stare for a moment.  "Aki.  Go home.  Sleep.  You're really, really starting to scare me.  And I want you to take Jane with you."

"Wha?" Aki yelped.  She saw Jane's head whip towards her at the sound, so she lowered her voice.  "Sid, I can't.  She doesn't like me.  We'd kill each other.  That's why I did her first; so that if anything went wrong, it would happen to her!"

"I'm calling a taxi for you," Dr. Sid said, ignoring her protests.  "I don't want you to come back to the lab until tomorrow night.  I'll clean up here."  He went back to Aki's storage closet, sorting through the junk that had accumulated while Aki had been monitoring her experiments: coffee machine, a half-dozen cheesy romance novels, a notepad with some rather disturbing scribbles that would give a psychiatrist nightmares, a dog-eared copy of "The Necronomicon For Dummies", a chainsaw…

"A chainsaw?" Dr. Sid said blankly.

"It was here when I leased the lab," Aki said, shrugging.

Finally, Dr. Sid found what he was looking for in the accumulated junk: a spare set of clothing for Jane.  "Here, help her dress while I go call that cab for you."

"Right," Aki said, her voice resigned.  She'd let Jane stay at her place for the night, since it really was her fault the woman was alive in the first place, but tomorrow, after the others were revived, she was going to get to work finding them a place to stay.

She wasn't going to let something like a lousy roommate ruin her happiness!  And, if she did manage to get to sleep, time would fly much faster, and soon, she would again be with Gray!

*    *    *

After Aki left, Dr. Sid left a message with his other assistant, Betty, that he wasn't going to make it to the lab that day.  Instead, he wanted to see just what Aki had done.  _This shouldn't be possible, Dr. Sid thought to himself as he flipped through Aki's files.  They were surprisingly coherent, despite Aki's decaying sanity.  But despite Aki's careful research and her obvious results, that one thought kept nagging at Dr. Sid.  _It should never have worked.__

The spirit regeneration serum needed a partial spirit to work.  There was no such thing as spontaneous regeneration; you couldn't get something from nothing!  Well, there were theories that a residue of a spirit was left in a body after a Phantom ripped it away, not enough to animate a body, of course, but perhaps enough for Aki to work with.  But why would that regenerate the dead tissues of a body?

Dr. Sid sighed, rubbing his scalp in bafflement.  Perhaps it was a miracle, something that couldn't be explained, and shouldn't be questioned.  Unfortunately, his scientific mind urged him to delve into this miracle, to find the explanation behind it.

Sometimes, being a scientist really _sucked._

Aki's notes were no help, Sid concluded after about two hours of flipping through both those stored on the computer and the hastily scrawled notes Aki had left scattered about.  

He did, however, have something he could investigate.  Before letting Aki take Jane home, he'd taken a small blood and tissue sample from her arm.  And he had access to the bodies of Neil, Ryan, and Gray, as well.  "Let's see your secrets," Dr. Sid murmured, as he took the sample of Jane's blood he'd stored in the cooler.

He could see something was very wrong as soon as he examined the blood under a microscope.  _That can't be right, Dr. Sid thought, stunned.  He wondered if his sample were tainted, somehow, because what he was seeing wasn't possible._

Because he had no other samples from Jane, he decided to take samples from the other Deep Eyes.  The results were the same: though there were definite signs of a spirit in the samples, there was no cell regeneration, no cell activity whatsoever.  While hearts pumped, and lungs drew in breath, they seemed to be half-hearted attempts to carry out the functions they were no longer needed for.

They were dead.

He had to tell Aki; she hadn't resurrected the Deep Eyes, she'd only given corpses a semblance of life!  But would she listen to him?  _No…  She's so excited about Gray that she won't listen to reason, not if it means she won't be getting him back.  I can't let this happen… this is a crime against nature.  I'll have to destroy them.  His heart was heavy at the thought.  He was going to have to destroy Aki's dream…  but it was better that she hate him forever than to have to deal with the consequences of what she'd done._

If he destroyed the bodies, then that would be it.  Perhaps he could set fire to the lab… say it was an accident…  

The sound of clanging metal jerked Dr. Sid out of his planning.  _What was that?  _His head jerked around, searching for the source of the noise.  "Aki?  Is that you?"  Dammit, had she come back against his orders?  Or maybe one of the scientists had wandered in… had he remembered to lock the door?  

Dr. Sid turned towards the door, frowning when he saw it was definitely locked.  Had the sound come from outside the lab?  _Odd, it sort of sounded like the door from one of the lockers banging open.  _That was it; when he'd taken samples from the Deep Eyes, he hadn't shut one of the lockers all the way, and the door had fallen open.

He got up to remedy the situation.  As he did, it occurred to him that maybe this would be a good way to destroy the bodies; if all of them were left open, the bodies could get spoiled.  He could blame it on Aki… tell her she'd been too tired to check that they were latched properly…

All thoughts of destruction flew out of his mind when he saw the gaping, _empty locker before him.  _What the hell?  Where's-__

A pair of cold, stiff arms wrapped around Dr. Sid's neck.  "I'm hungry… so hungry…" a voice whispered in his ears.  It was the last thing Dr. Sid ever heard.

*    *    *

She felt warm and safe, wrapped in her beloved's embrace.  Aki smiled and snuggled her back closer to Gray, and felt his grip on her tighten in response.  It felt so good, so right…  Definitely not a dream…  

Because this _wasn't _a dream.  Aki's eyes snapped open when she realized she really was being cuddled, and that, while she would soon be reunited with Gray, he wasn't due to awaken for – her eyes strained to make out the numbers on the digital clock – five hours.  The next Deep Eyes member was going to awaken in two hours.  Which meant that the person holding her was…

Aki slid her hand backwards and encountered soft flesh where no man would have it.  _Uh-oh…_ Aki thought as the person behind her tensed.  

"Don't touch me!" a voice howled, shoving Aki out of the bed.  Aki tumbled off, hitting the floor with a yelp.  Eyes wide, she met the equally startled look on Jane Proudfoot's face.  "Okay," Jane said.  "Would you care to explain this?  One moment, I'm letting a Phantom kill me, then I have these brief flashes of memory of you and Dr. Sid and now… now… now I wake up in bed with you?!  Is this hell?"

Aki opened her mouth to try to explain, but found she couldn't remember much either beyond Dr. Sid pushing them out of the lab door and towards the waiting taxi.  "You're alive," Aki said, "and, um, you're here because you don't have anywhere else to stay.  Everyone thought you died, so you don't have a home to go to.  So, I said you could stay here for the night."  Well, that wasn't quite how she'd phrased it, but Jane didn't need to know that.  

"Ah.  And that gave you permission to cop a feel?" Jane hissed.

"I don't even know why you were in my bed!" Aki protested.  They stared at each other for a moment, then suddenly, Aki laughed.  Jane looked baffled, so Aki explained.  "This is good.  You seem to have your attitude back.  That means you're fully recovered from your… ordeal."

"Ordeal…"  Jane suddenly snapped to attention.  "The others… you were able to help me, but what about the others?"

"They should revive tonight," Aki said.  "Even Gray."  A smile spread across Jane's face, the first Aki had ever seen on the woman.  "But, uh, I can't bring you with me.  You'll have to stay here while I take care of things."

"They're my teammates," Jane said rebelliously.  "I should be there for them."

The glint in Jane's eye promised pain and mutilation for anyone who stood in her way.  Hastily, Aki said, "It's lab policy.  I suppose you can come to the lab with me;  I just can't let you in to see the others until they fully awaken.  It's the best I can do."

Jane considered for a moment.  "All right.  So, when does this happen?"

"About an hour.  We should get going."

"Right."  Jane slid out of the bed, a graceful movement that Aki envied.  "I still seem to be dressed.  So are you.  You in the habit of sleeping in your clothes?"  Then Jane shrugged before Aki could answer.  "Who cares.  Let's go.  The sooner the Deep Eyes are back together, the better!"  She looked as if she was ready to take on the world, and Aki grinned.  Well, the world was going to get quite a shock soon when Captain Edwards and squad returned to active duty.

*    *    *

The labs were emptying when Aki arrived, and she greeted acquaintances as she and Jane passed them in the hall.  She searched the smocked scientists for Dr. Sid, but saw no sign of her mentor.  Perhaps he'd already left for bed.  Or maybe he was avoiding her.  She'd never seen him so angry before.

She did spot Betty, however, and was surprised by the woman's presence.  She usually left the labs much earlier, and she stopped Betty in the hall.  The woman looked tired, but she seemed willing to speak to Aki.  "Hello, Dr. Ross.  Is everything all right?"

"Yeah," Aki said, wondering at the concern she saw in the woman's eyes.  "Everything's fine."

"Good," Betty said, smiling tiredly.  "When I got Dr. Sid's message this morning, I was worried that something was wrong."

"Message?" Aki repeated blankly.

"That he couldn't make it.  _Is everything all right?" _

"Yes.  He was probably just tired.  He was helping me with an experiment late last night, after a hard day yesterday.  He must have gone straight to bed after kicking me out of the lab."  Aki gave her a reassuring grin.  "I'll see you later."

She walked off, with Jane in tow.  "The offices are down here.  There should be some magazines or books or something you can look at while I take care of this."

"Oh, good," Jane grumbled.  But she didn't protest further.  The prospect of seeing her teammates again was enough to keep her spirits up.  "Let me know the moment they're awake."

She left Jane and hurried back to her lab.  The door was locked, and the lab was in good order.  Not that she mistrusted him, of course, but she'd been scared, this close to Gray's awakening.

Neil was first.  She prepped the scanner over the table, so she'd be able to be there the moment his spirit completely regenerated, then went to the locker that held him.  When her hand touched the latch, she frowned.  The lock was broken!  Alarmed, Aki yanked the door open, worried that the seal had been breeched and the body had been left to warm throughout the day.  While she hadn't had the temperature high enough to freeze the bodies, she'd been keeping them cool to slow decay.  If he'd warmed, then his body could be ruined past saving.

A puff of cold air, however, reassured her that everything was all right.  She wheeled the gurney over to the table and shifted Neil over, then turned on the scanners.  He would likely awake in half an hour – 

Neil's eyes abruptly shot open, and his hand closed around her wrist with lightning fast speed.  Aki gasped in shock, then took a deep breath to slow her frantic heartbeats.  _He shouldn't have woken that fast!  _

"Hey, Dr. Ross!" Neil said brightly.  He showed none of the sluggishness that Jane had.  If it weren't for the chill in his fingers, she would have thought he'd been awake for hours.  

"Corporal Fleming," Aki said, trying to sound clinical.  "You're in the Bio-Etheric Center after an experimental treatment-"

"I was dead, but now I'm alive again."  Neil shrugged and sat up.  "You don't need to explain it, Doc."

"Not dead…" Aki was shocked at the man's insight.  She hadn't wanted to deal with this!  "Just… almost dead."

"Uh-huh," Neil agreed.  "All that matters is that I'm alive again.  What about the others?  Did they make it out alive?  Was I the only one…?"

She'd forgotten that he'd been the first to die.  He didn't know about the others yet.  "I stitched up Sergeant Whittaker's wounds, and Jane is waiting in my office down the hall.  Gray… didn't survive this unscathed…"  _or__ at all, she didn't add, "but… well, you'll all be reunited tonight.  They had to have treatment, too, but everything's going to be all right."_

Neil arched his eyebrow, as if he suspected the truth, but he seemed willing to play along.  "Okay.  Can I see Jane?"

Aki considered.  If he knew they'd all died, he could tell Jane.  But would the down-to-earth soldier believe him?  And was she doing them a favor by making them wait?  Besides, this way, she could get rid of Neil while she saw to Ryan and Gray.

"She's this way."  Aki took Neil to her office, leaving before the happy reunion could get underway.

Ryan was next.  What she hadn't told Neil and Jane was that he probably wasn't going to awaken just yet.  His wound had been severe, and he'd lost a lot of blood.  His body was going to take longer to recover, but he'd live.  The others would be disappointed, but their teammate's safety came first.

She'd been half afraid that Ryan's locker would be busted, too, but it was intact.  _What happened to Neil's, I wonder?  Maybe she'd accidentally knocked one of the gurneys against it when she'd wheeled past, or something.  No matter; he was safe.  They were all safe.  _

Ryan's revival went without a hitch, though, as she'd suspected, he didn't awaken.  She considered going to tell Jane and Neil, but decided to wait until Gray was awake, and she could tell them together.  Besides, she'd just wheeled Gray out, and in less than an hour, they'd be together again.  

She busied herself in the lab, straightening shelves that didn't need it, rearranging tools, pacing…  

The soft sound of Gray drawing a breath made Aki spring towards the table.  Color was returning to the captain's face, and his breaths were becoming stronger.  Aki took one large hand in hers, and nearly wept when the fingers lightly closed around hers.  "Gray," she whispered.

"A-Aki?"  The voice was so soft she had to strain to hear it.  His eyes opened and met hers, and a faint smile touched his lips.  "Aki!"   He struggled into a sitting position. 

He didn't get the chance to repeat her name, for her lips were upon his.  Then she wrapped her arms around him and joyfully wept against his chest.

To Be Continued…


	3. Braaaaaaains

Disclaimer: All FF:TSW characters are property of Square. Major Boyer is mine.

Author's Note: In an effort to un-abandon my fics, I'm doing a chapter of this because I'm in a somewhat comedic mood. It's _hard _to go back to writing a fic I haven't done in awhile! But I want to get stories finished, and this one only has about two chapters left after this one. I seem to recall promising to ntrophi awhile ago that I'd include Major Boyer in here. Something about a zombie queen? Just to warn you, this chapter's a tad bit twisted. I wonder what I was thinking when I plotted this out so long ago?

ZOMBIE LOVE

_Part Three _

_Braaaaaaains…_

The readouts on the monitor were peculiar; judging by the vital signs, the catatonic Ryan Whittaker was a healthy specimen. Yet he remained unconscious – oh, and then there was the gaping hole in his chest that, oddly, was neither bleeding nor showing any sign of healing. Aki's brow furrowed in confusion. According to her predictions, Ryan's body should have been exactly as it had before his spirit had been stolen away, injured, bleeding, but alive. Not like this.

Aki threaded her fingers through Gray's as she watched the monitors. She hadn't taken her hands from him since he'd awoken, feeling that if she let go, he might vanish again. This was going to be a problem when nature called, but she'd worry about that later. "Is he going to wake up?" Gray asked.

She frowned. Had Ryan's vitals matched those of a man in his condition, she would have told Gray that no, he probably wasn't going to awaken yet, but he'd be stable until they got him to the hospital. But he seemed so… normal. Breathing evenly, as if there wasn't a hole in one of his lungs. His vitals resembled exactly those of his squad mates when they'd first woken. How could he seem so healthy with a collapsed lung? It was as if his body had compensated upon resurrection, accepting it as the normal condition. _Oooohkaaaay…_

"We should take him to the hospital," Aki decided. She didn't know how she'd explain this, though, but if she wanted to keep up the charade that they hadn't died, but had just been undergoing treatment, she'd have to act as if Ryan was a normal patient. Even if this wasn't normal.

It was late, past midnight, so there shouldn't have been many people out in the halls. Aki had wheeled Ryan into the corridor and was halfway down the hall before she remembered she'd forgotten Jane and Neil. "The others!" she yelped.

"Others?" Gray repeated.

"Jane and Neil," she said, before she recalled that she hadn't yet thought of a reason that the two of them – and Ryan – were alive and well. Gray had seen the three of them die, and she knew that as soon as he accepted the fact that he wasn't dead, he'd wonder why they weren't, either.

"They're alive too?" His voice was excited at first, but she saw his brow furrow. "How? How are they alive?"

"It's a loooong story," she said, hoping that would suffice until she thought of a feasible explanation. "I don't want to think about it now. Let's just get help for Ryan and go home." She smiled at him sweetly, hoping it would be enough to dispel his suspicion. It didn't quite work, but it did shut him up for now.

"Where are they?"

Aki nodded towards the closed door. "In there."

"You left them alone in a confined space for a prolonged period of time? Good God… they've probably killed each other." Gray trotted over to the door, his stride still a tad unsteady. He flung the door open, revealing the two corporals. From Gray's alarm, Aki had half expected to find Jane with Neil in a stranglehold, but what they saw was worrying for its total lack of violence. Jane was pacing the small area, though she glanced up when she saw them and smiled at Gray. Neil was doing… absolutely nothing. He made no wisecracks, offered his captain no greeting, and in fact didn't even turn to look at them. He seemed to be studying the wall with a blank-eyed stare – and closer inspection showed he didn't even seem to be _blinking. _

"He's been like this since you left," Jane said. "He hasn't even insulted me! Even when I started throwing spit wads at him." For the first time, Aki noticed the line of white gobs stuck to Neil's back. They'd been precisely tossed in the pattern of a smiley face.

"Neil?" Gray said, waving his hand in front of the corporal's face. No response.

"Neil?" Aki tried. And now Neil finally responded with the fluttering of his eyelashes, and then he turned to face them fully.

"Oh, hey! I was just thinking," the corporal said. "What are we doing now, boss?" he asked Aki.

_Boss? _Aki wondered. That was peculiar. But she didn't dwell on it. It was probably just Neil's sense of humor kicking in. "We're taking Ryan to the infirmary; he needs to have the wound in his chest checked out."

Neil fell into step behind her, totally ignoring his commanding officer. Jane followed, looking rather unsettled by her confinement with her teammate. It had to be a side effect of his revival, Aki decided. Maybe he was still a little off, but in time, he'd be his normal self. She'd worry about that later. For now, she had to think of an excuse for why Ryan was alive after several days of being presumed dead. And _buried. _

Maybe she could just leave the gurney at the door to the infirmary, ring the doorbell, and run?

It turned out that the point was moot. In the short time they had left the gurney unattended, Ryan had awoken, climbed off the gurney, and run down the hallway, the sheet trailing around behind him. He made peculiar high-pitched noises that sounded vaguely familiar, and not very Ryan-ish. Or human, for that matter. Aki just stared after him, open mouthed, as he ran straight into a wall, comically smacking into it and sliding downward. He still had a slightly baffled look on his face when the other four caught up to him. Ryan held his hands in front of his face, staring at them wide-eyed, then made that hooting sound again.

"Um… is it my imagination, or does he sound like a Phantom?" Jane asked. Aki blinked. Now that she mentioned it, the noises _did _sound like a distorted version of a Phantom's cry. Gray leaned forward to help up his sergeant, but the man batted his hand away, his confused look deepening as his hand hit Gray's arm with a solid _thwack. _He made that strange hooting cry again. _Okay… this is weird… Maybe there was a flaw in his revival, perhaps because of his injury. But one out of four isn't bad, is it? Gray's okay, at least._ And that was what was important.

"Do you think the doctors will be able to help him?" Gray asked as Ryan again shied away from his touch.

Suddenly, it didn't seem like such a good idea to have trained medical personnel checking Ryan over. The wound obviously didn't pain him, his vitals were stable – and how could it be explained that he had come back from the dead thinking he was a Phantom?

"The wound isn't _that _bad," Aki said frantically. "I can probably stitch it up. Just let me go to the lab and pick up some medical supplies. Here – take my apartment key. Jane knows where I live; she'll show you the way. Take him there, and I'll come as soon as I get the supplies." She turned around and sprinted off to the lab before Gray could ask questions. She had _no _idea what to say to him right now. Ryan was his best friend; seeing him like this must have been painful.

It took her a few moments to realize that she was being followed. She thought at first Gray was trying to get her alone, so he could question her privately, but then she realized her pursuer was Neil. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I thought you'd need help, boss," he said cheerfully.

"Uh… right," she said slowly. There was something strangely reminiscent of a loyal dog in his attitude. Had Neil always been so eager to please?

Back in the lab, Aki rummaged through the cabinets, searching for medical supplies. Neil hovered around in the background, watching her unblinkingly. She got the impression that if she ordered him to jump off the roof of the building, he'd gladly do it. She wished she'd at least told him to keep watch, however, because just as she crawled inside one spacious cabinet after a package of bandages, an unpleasant voice came from behind her. "Dr. Ross… how _interesting _to find you in the labs at this hour." Aki jumped, banging her head on the steel cabinet's ceiling. Swearing softly, she backed out and, rubbing the swelling bump on her forehead, she stood to face Major Boyer.

The cold-eyed major had been rumored to be in line for General Hein's position as commander of the New York USMF division, and was pretty high-ranked here in Houston. From his arrogant attitude, one would think he was the highest ranked man in the USMF. "I was just… checking on an experiment," she said. Neil nodded emphatically, his head bobbing so forcefully she thought it was going to fall off.

Boyer arched one eyebrow. He clearly didn't believe her – maybe it had something to do with all the medical paraphernalia scattered over the table – but he decided to humor her. "Since you're here, I need to ask you a few questions. Dr. Sid didn't show up at a Council meeting today. His assistant, Betty, said he wasn't going to be at the lab, but he didn't give a reason. And when she went to look for him, he wasn't at home. Now, I normally wouldn't give a damn about the whereabouts of a scientist, but the Council pressured me to look into it." He heaved a long-suffering sigh, as though he was doing them a great favor. "Did Dr. Sid say anything to you today about something that would keep him from the labs? An appointment, a family emergency, something that would keep him away all day?"

Aki frowned. It wasn't like Dr. Sid to pull something like this; even in an emergency, he always let someone – usually Aki, since she was the closest thing he had to family – know where he was going. "He didn't say anything to me." She tried to remember if her com had had any messages on it when she left, but she didn't think so.

"When was the last time you saw the doctor?"

"Last night. He didn't say anything that made me think he was going to be gone." There was something about the look on Boyer's face that disturbed her; he was hiding something from her.

"Last night…" He seemed to savor the words. "You were here pretty late last night, weren't you?" he asked. "The security recordings showed arrived just after the labs started emptying, and that you didn't leave until almost morning. And that you left with someone who didn't arrive…" He glanced over at Neil, but if he recognized the corporal for who he was, he didn't say anything. "You seem to have had a busy night."

_The security cameras! _Aki mentally kicked herself. _How could I be so stupid! _While there weren't any in the labs themselves, they were in the halls, and any comings and goings would have been recorded. It meant Boyer had seen her leave with Jane the previous night, and with the others earlier. And he'd know, if he scrutinized the entire tape, that she hadn't arrived with any of them… If he was really ambitious, he might have seen her arrive with their bodies! And from the look on his face, he'd definitely seen something. "Ah, well…" she said, flustered.

"It's late; you seem too tired to think straight. Go home, Dr. Ross," Boyer said. "But I'd like to speak to you first think in the morning. My office, seven o'clock sharp."

Aki gulped. "Right," she said weakly. He was definitely planning to further review the tapes, otherwise he wouldn't have let her off so easily. He wanted to find something to hold against her… It was no secret that Boyer shared his predecessor's disgust with the scientific community, and he had the power to discredit them. He'd probably love to humiliate the 'savior of the world.'

Boyer turned on his heel and strode away, and Aki turned to gather up her supplies. She didn't want to stay in the lab any longer. She asked Neil to grab a few items, then realized with surprise that he was no longer in the lab. She frowned, wondering where he'd gone. Then she shrugged. She didn't have time to worry about him right now. She gathered up the last of the equipment and left.

XXX

Major Boyer sank into the desk chair, feeling rather smug. Dr. Ross was up to something illegal; he didn't know what yet, but he had the feeling that when he exposed it, she'd lose her credibility, despite all she'd done for the world. Boyer normally wouldn't care about the actions of a scientist, but Aki was one of the few who was a threat to his position. With Phantoms out of the picture, the military control would begin to slip, and soon they'd lose their hold on the world. Scientists and their ideas to save the world would become more useful, displacing the military. It would be irritating, to say the least.

Boyer intended the military to remain the top dog for as long as possible. He just needed to figure out what it was that Dr. Ross had done that he could use to his advantage…

His door creaked open, and Boyer looked up, annoyed. Who would dare enter his office uninvited at this hour? He scowled at the man who had been with Dr. Ross, the thin, pale man who looked vaguely familiar. "I'm not seeing anyone at this time," Boyer snapped. "Get out of here…" he trailed off.

"Corporal Neil Fleming. And you _will _see me," the man fairly purred. _Fleming? Wasn't he one of the soldiers who… _"You are planning something bad for my master," he said, crossing the room to place his hands on Boyer's desk. He stared into the major's eyes, and there was something in their depths that unsettled him. "I can't let you do that."

His _master? What the hell is he talking about? _"If you mean Dr. Ross, I'm merely investigating her activities," he said calmly. "It's quite a coincidence that she's engaged in peculiar nocturnal activities in the lab, and then Dr. Sid suddenly disappears." He wasn't afraid of the corporal's threatening posture; Boyer thought he could snap the thin young man if it came to hand to hand combat – and unlike Fleming, Boyer had a gun within reach, in an open drawer.

"You're right; the two events are tied together," Fleming said calmly. "Dr. Sid was sticking his nose where it didn't belong, so he had to be taken care of." And suddenly he smiled, a wide, mad grin that made Boyer's hackles rise.

"Are you saying that Dr. Ross killed Dr. Sid?" This was much better than Boyer could have hoped for! His hand wrapped around the butt of his gun – scrawny or not, he wasn't going to give Fleming the chance to fight, or escape. If Boyer could just persuade him to say this before the Council…

"No, no… don't be ridiculous! Dr. Ross would never kill Dr. Sid! He's her mentor! Her friend! I'm the one who killed him." There was a fevered gleam in the corporal's eyes. Boyer began to feel the first stirrings of alarm; madness gave a man strength beyond his normal capabilities. "He would have tried to stop my master, and I can't let anything stand in her way. So I killed him. Do you want to know how?"

There was a com device next to the gun; Boyer tapped out the emergency sequence by feel, then put his hand back on the gun and pulled it into his lap. Fleming leaned forward, until his face was nearly touching Boyer's. The major found he'd already drawn back as far as he could go; he couldn't pull back from that sinister gaze. "I ate his brains," Fleming said confidentially. Boyer brought up his gun, leveling the muzzle with the corporal's temple. "Just like I'm going to eat yours."

When security arrived five minutes later, all they found was a bullet hole in the wall, a pool of blood on Boyer's desk… and chunks of something that looked horribly like gnawed brain tissue…

XXX

Gray and Jane had restrained Ryan by the time Aki arrived at her apartment. She set down her burden, asking, "How is he?"

"Surprisingly strong for someone with a hole in his chest." Gray was massaging something that looked like a bite mark on his arm. "Where's Neil?"

Good question. "I had him go get Dr. Sid," she said quickly. "He's better at this than I am."

Gray accepted her excuse as Aki sorted through the materials. "Anything I can do to help?" he asked.

"No… I should be all right." She eyed Ryan's thrashing form warily. He certainly wasn't acting hurt.

"Mind if I take a shower? I feel… well… unclean." _Peculiar phrasing, _Aki thought. But then, he'd been dead for a few days; he probably had some mold he needed to wash off.

"Go right ahead." Aki turned her attention to Ryan. She unbound his wound, frowning at what she saw. It looked different than when she'd checked it last. It wasn't healing, it wasn't worse, it didn't seem to be bothering him at all. Aki began to stitch it up, and was half done when she heard a shriek from the direction of the bathroom. She and Jane whirled around, and Gray rushed out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped loosely around his hips. His expression was one of pure panic.

"Aki! It… it fell off!" Gray's voice was strangely shrill.

Aki stared at Gray blankly. "What fell off? Did you break something in the shower? Don't worry, the landlord can repair anything-"

"I don't think he can repair this!" Gray began to unwrap the towel around his waist.

"Oooh, baby, take it off," Jane purred from somewhere behind Aki. Aki shifted position, not wanting to let Jane see.

"What are you doing?" Aki asked. "You shouldn't be doing this here-" The towel slipped down Gray's bare legs, and Aki gaped at what she saw. Or, rather, what she _didn't _see.

"It just… fell off," Gray repeated weakly, and he _wasn't _referring to the towel. "Aki… what's wrong with me?"

To Be Continued…


	4. Romance of the Dead

Disclaimer: I don't own 'em (except for Major Boyer). Square does. If I owned them, though, I would share!

Author's Note: Nearly done; if all goes according to plan, I should have just one more chapter left after this. I'm glad you're all enjoying this; and I'm especially glad that I'm nearly done. One less fic to worry about! I hate having so many unfinished fics. When this is done, I can move on to another neglectee. I'm putting _Infinite Requiem _on a (very) slight hiatus until I finish this; I've got three fics I want to complete soon, and I'm going to concentrate on those. My apologies for the dirty humor… But this was spawned from a conversation about how there are romance novels about vampires and werewolves, but not zombies. So I was just exploring why zombies are so neglected… The really 'romantic' bits come next chapter.

_**Zombie Love**_

_Four – Romance of the Dead_

Aki stared stupidly at Gray, her mind reeling from his unexpected emasculation. All she could think was, _Why did it have to be that? Why couldn't he lose a leg, or an arm? Or even his face? I could deal with that! _Suddenly, all her romantic plans for her reunion with her dead lover came to a screeching halt. "Uh…" Aki said, unable to say anything more intelligent.

"We need to get to a hospital! Now!" Gray said, his voice shrill. "They can still sew it back on!"

That snapped Aki out of her stupor. Hospital? No way! Body parts didn't just randomly disconnect themselves; if Aki took Gray to a doctor, there'd be even more questions, and she hadn't even figured out how to answer the ones she was already being faced with. "I can do that," Aki said. It couldn't be too hard, right? She'd darned her socks dozens of times. This couldn't be too different…

Gray stared at her. "No, I think I'd rather a hospital handled this! I mean, we have to take Ryan there anyway, right? So let's get him and go!" He glanced over at Ryan, who'd been duct-taped to a chair. He was still making those strange, Phantom-like cries, and seemed confused that he couldn't just pull his arms _through _the tape.

"No hospital," Aki said, turning from Gray to rummage through her desk drawers. She had the needle, but she'd used the rest of the thread stitching up Ryan's chest. But she had to have more in here somewhere…. She found a spool of thread with a needle stuck into it, and wrinkled her nose. _Sky blue…_ She hoped Gray wouldn't mind. After all, it wasn't like anyone would see it…

"What? Aki, what the hell is wrong with you! We need to go…" He trailed off, and his voice lost its shrillness as it switched from hysteria to suspicion. "Why no hospital? What aren't you telling us, Aki?" He glanced down at the wound, which was still bloodless. "I can't even _feel_ this wound, Aki. What's wrong with me?"

"Ah…" Now she had to think of something to tell _them_? Aki had never been good at coming up with brilliant lies to cover up for her actions; now she had to convincingly lie not just to her mentor, the man in charge of the city, and the rest of the general populace; she also had to think of something to satisfy the team! She decided to tell them a half-truth. "It was an experimental procedure, one that hasn't been approved yet," she said truthfully. "If the hospital finds out, I could be discredited. So could Dr. Sid. And we can't have that happen now, when Major Boyer would do anything to make us look bad. I know, I shouldn't have done it without approval. Apparently, there are some… flaws," she said, pulling a pot out of the cupboard and pouring in a thin stream of water, enough to immerse the needle. She began to boil it to sterilize it again, since she'd just used it on Ryan, though she wasn't sure that would be necessary. The wound, what she'd glimpsed of it, had looked peculiar… there'd been no blood, no raw flesh. It resembled the hole in Ryan's chest, now that she thought about it…

"'Flaws?'" Gray repeated incredulously. "You call this a 'flaw?'" He was on the verge of a breakdown, and she needed to calm him down now before he fell to pieces… literally. "To hell with your reputation, Aki, I'd like my manhood to be restored!"

"If I can't fix this, we'll go to the hospital. I promise."

"How about we skip the part where you try to fix this and we just go to the hospital?" Gray demanded.

She was saved from answering when Neil finally made his entrance, looking like the cat who ate the canary.

"Where were you, Neil?" Aki demanded, as she pulled the sterilized needle from the boiling water. "We're having a bit of a crisis here, and it's better if we all stay together!" So she could keep an eye on them, she didn't add. Clearly, something wasn't right here. Perhaps the serum that had restored their bodies hadn't stabilized yet, and she needed to keep a close eye on the team in case any more peculiarities manifested in the mean time.

"Sorry, boss," he apologized meekly. "I was hungry, so I grabbed a bite to eat," he said, shrugging his shoulders. Before Aki could question him further, he asked, "What's going on?"

"Cap's gonna be singing soprano from now on," Jane said, looking as if she was unsure whether to be horrified, or to laugh her ass off. She seemed to be leaning towards the latter.

"Maybe we should do this in the bathroom," Aki said. Gray didn't look too happy to be sharing this crisis with his squad mates. So much for team solidarity… He followed her obediently into the cramped bathroom, where a sad-looking lump of flesh sat in a pool of water. Aki was about to reach for it, then felt a blush creep across her cheeks. This was _not_ how she'd envisioned their reunion… _Just like darning a sock… Yeah, right… _This was going to take awhile…

XXX

Major Boyer shambled towards the soldiers' barracks, which were mostly empty thanks to the Council's decision to cut back the military forces. Not that that bothered him any more; nothing bothered him, now, not the great big hole in his skull that was lined with tooth marks, or the drool drying on his chin… He only had one thought in that vacant cranium of his: to feed on the brains of others, to fill himself with that which he had lost.

That he'd be damning others to a similar existence didn't matter to him. His lips stretched into a rictus grin as he crashed through the barracks door, no longer caring that using a doorknob would have been much simpler.

In his undead state, Major Boyer moved painstakingly slowly, his shuffling steps loud, and his mental capacity was limited, to the point where he could only cling to one simple directive at a time. Any fit soldier would have been able to outrun him once they heard him and identified the threat he presented – in fact, they'd have been able to out _walk_ him without difficulty. And even the most brain dead private would have been able to outthink the major, because something as simple as rounding a corner would be enough to confuse the nearly mindless zombie.

But this was a military that had been pared down to a bare minimum; the only people who voluntarily stayed were men out to impress women, keep from landing in prison, or escape the difficulties of Real Life. The USMF had become the only job where they could spend the night binge drinking and partying, because the soldiers had become little more than glorified security guards with rank in this now peaceful world. While several of them were still awake, playing a game of strip poker, they'd spent a hard couple of hours drinking.

They'd become the cream of the military, if not humanity in general.

They didn't have a chance.

XXX

"Let's never speak of this again," Gray grumbled as he followed Aki out of the bathroom. He was pulling on his pants, trying to hide that he was now a little… lopsided. He'd calmed slightly, now that he was a little more whole, but he hadn't stopped his demands to go to the hospital. Aki wasn't going to be able to come up with excuses for much longer. The truth was, she didn't think a hospital would help. She'd had her doubts, but after examining the wound more closely, she _knew_ there was nothing that could be done. The flesh reminded her of the cadavers she'd worked with in college: limp, bloodless, and utterly _dead_.

The reanimation process had only been partially successful, she realized, horrified.

Gray strode across the room, deliberately not looking at his squadmates. He began to unwrap the tape around Ryan's arms; the sergeant didn't even react as the tape was pulled away from his arms. His intentions were clear; they were going to the hospital. Maybe it would be for the best… maybe it could prevent…

A meaty _thunk_ echoed through the room, and everyone froze. "What the hell?" Gray yelped, lifting his right hand. His eyes widened as he saw the stump that had been his middle finger; the actual digit had come to rest by Neil's foot. "Aki. Hospital. _Now_." Gray snapped.

"No," Aki said, her voice choked. "We need to get to the lab. Something went very, very _wrong…_"

XXX

THUD.

The noise seemed to be coming from the lab next door, and Aki put it out of her mind as she led the Deep Eyes back into her lab. She fretted over what Major Boyer would make of another late-night visit to the laboratory when he saw the tape; could she persuade him that it was the ideal site for a late night liaison?

THUD.

"What is that?" Jane asked, halting.

"Who cares?" Gray snapped. "We have a much bigger crisis on our hands!" During the short walk to the lab, Gray had lost another finger and an ear, with each wound being as bloodless and dead-looking as the previous ones. Even he'd seen the sense in going to a lab instead of an infirmary; this obviously wasn't a _normal _health problem.

_I'm going to have to tell him the truth, _Aki realized as she unlocked the lab. "I'm going to need blood samples from all of you," she said. Jane gave her an indignant look, so Aki added, "I used the same procedure on all of you. Maybe you're not manifesting symptoms now…" she trailed off.

"Or the same symptoms, anyway," Neil chipped in, nodding towards Ryan. The befuddled Phantom-man had calmed somewhat, but his eyes were still darting around as if he was looking for something.

THUD.

"Tell us a bit more about this procedure," Gray said coolly, as Aki pulled out a syringe and drew a blood sample from his arm. When she pulled it away, the skin around the needle came away with it.

THUD.

"It's…" Aki was suddenly tongue-tied. She turned away from him and prepped the sample for viewing under the microscope. "Well, it's highly experimental."

"Go on," Gray said.

"It's been highly successful on plants."

Gray arched an eyebrow. The movement almost made his left eye pop out.

"One plant," Aki blurted out, unable to lie under that steel-eyed glare. "The serum I used is supposed to restore spirits to bodies that have lost them."

"You mean… _dead _bodies." Gray's eyes widened in horror, making his right eye wobble in its socket. Aki tried to calm him before Gray got too angry – God only knew what would happen to the veins on his forehead that normally stood out when he was mad…

THUD.

"Are you saying that we were dead?" Jane asked incredulously.

Aki adjusted the slide, then fiddled with the controls so the image would appear on the holo-screen, where it would be visible to all of them. She frowned at what she saw, adjusting the focus to see if that made things better. But the truth was there, before her eyes. Gray hadn't been brought back from the dead… "No… I'm saying that you still _are _dead," Aki said.

Gray suddenly collapsed against the table, but fortunately, it was the result of shock and not the sudden degeneration of the muscle tissue in his legs. "Dead?" he repeated, his voice dull. "But… I don't feel dead."

"Neither do I," Jane said. Neil nodded emphatically. "Same here, boss," he said. "And that doesn't explain Sarge."

Good point. "I don't know how to explain it," Aki said helplessly. "But there's got to be a way to fix this. If I can trigger cell regeneration, the dead cells in your body will be replaced, and you'll be… normal…" Assuming all the kings horses and all the kings men could put Gray back together again.

THUD.

This time they all jumped, even though they'd grown accustomed to the persistent banging. "I think I'll just see what that is before it drives me nuts," Jane said quickly. She spun on her heel and walked away rapidly. Aki was going to call out to her not to interfere with someone else's project, but Gray stopped her.

"This is a bit much for her; Jane needs to do something to keep busy or it will overwhelm her," Gray explained. "She'll come back with a clearer head."

Aki hoped she'd come back; if someone had told her that she'd been dead, she'd run like hell and not look back. She decided to take a page from Jane's book and keep busy. "Neil? Can you help me get a sample from Ryan? I need to know why the two of you are manifesting odd symptoms, and the others seem to have nothing wrong at all. I might have to tailor a cure for each of you." She grimaced; that would take forever. But maybe there was nothing wrong with Neil and Jane. That would cut down the time, and she might find a clue to their cure in their cells.

THUD.

"Whatever you say, boss," Neil grinned at her, a twisted smile that showed far too many teeth. With strength surprising in one so small and wiry, he pinned down the much larger man, enabling Aki to take the sample, and Ryan hooted in protest. She was about to prep it when Jane reentered the lab, her face confused.

"That sound is coming from inside this lab," she said.

"What?" Aki blinked.

"I could hear it through the wall; it's coming from back there." She nodded towards where the storage closet was located, out of the way of the cabinets holding the laboratory equipment. It was on the wall adjoining the next door lab, hence their confusion as to the sound's source.

THUD.

Puzzled, Aki went over to the closet. The center of the metal door had bulged outward, as if something within was pounding on it in the same place, over and over again.

THUD.

This time she saw a shudder go through the door. Whatever it was, it was definitely inside. "What the hell?" Gray said. He'd come up behind her, and his brow furrowed in puzzlement. They didn't unfurrow – the muscles were no longer responding to his commands. "What is it?"

"I don't know," Aki said. No one should have been able to access the lab except for herself and Dr. Sid. What could he have left in here that could make all the noise?

"Uh, you might not want to open that, boss," Neil said from somewhere behind them.

Aki ignored him. Her hand went to the handle, turning it slowly and gently swinging the door open, stepping backwards just in time to avoid the pale figure that tumbled out. She stared blankly for several moments, then realized she really was seeing what she thought she saw. "Sid!" she cried, relieved. "What happened? Who locked you in…" her voice choked off as the old man got to his feet and stared at her with glazed eyes.

For a long moment, her mind refused to accept what she saw; then it slowly sank in. Dr. Sid was standing under his own power, true, but there was something so terribly, horribly, utterly _wrong _that it made the problems with the Deep Eyes seem normal.

He had no brain.

To Be Continued…


	5. The Zombie Queen

Disclaimer: I don't own 'em (except for Major Boyer). Square does. If I owned them, though, I would share!

Author's Note: Happy Halloween! I couldn't figure out a way to fit Major Elliot in here; sorry to those of you who were hoping to see him. But anyway, here's the conclusion. I hope that I at least slightly amused you all. And now, I can get back to _Infinite Requiem. _

_**Zombie Love**_

_Five – The Zombie Queen_

"Sid?" Aki screamed. It wasn't, no, it couldn't be, there was no way this empty shell was her brilliant mentor… But as it turned its empty eyes towards her, she knew. "What… what happened…?" she couldn't finish; a lump had formed in her throat.

No, it wasn't a lump – Dr. Sid had lunged forward and placed his claw-like hands around her throat, shutting off her air. His strength astonished her; the aging doctor had never been able to grip with this bone-crushing force before! He pulled her closer, his mouth gaping wide. Aki tried to scream, but couldn't. Fetid breath, smelling like rotting meat, filled her nostrils and she began to gag.

And then a sharp, authoritative voice cut through the buzzing that had begun in her ears. "Bad Doctor! Bad! Put her down, now!" The hands released her throat, and Aki fell to her knees, gasping. Dr. Sid had backed away, a confused and slightly guilty expression on his face, much like a dog who has just been scolded for something it knew was bad. "Sorry about that, boss," Neil said from behind her. "He was acting on instinct; can't really think rationally, you know. Or at all, for that matter." He went to stand by the cowering Dr. Sid and patted the doctor's bony shoulders. "He'll be okay now, though." Neil's cheerful grin faded when he saw the expressions on the faces of the others. "Uh…" he said.

Gray folded his arms across his chest, the normally stoic stance ruined by his left elbow's sudden decision to disjoint. "Neil… what's going on? Do you know something about this?"

Neil suddenly seemed to find his shoes very interesting. He mumbled something that none of them caught, and Jane surged forward, grasping the tech's chin and forcing him to meet her gaze. "What. Did. You. Do." she snarled.

"I…" Neil tried to shrink back, but Jane's grip was firm. "He threatened the boss's project – er, us – and so I… I had to protect her interests!" Neil blurted out defensively. "Dr. Sid would have ruined everything for her! So I… Well, maybe it was a little extreme, but I was hungry…" Neil dithered. He wrung his hands. "But he won't do anything against the boss now! See? He's perfectly docile now; he just needed direction." Neil patted Dr. Sid's cracked cranium. His squadmates could only stare in horror (except for Ryan, of course, who was working at chewing off his restraints) at this newly-revealed monster in their midst. It was Aki who finally managed to break the silence.

"You… did… this?" Aki whispered.

"Sorry, boss," Neil said, his face falling. "I was just… I did it for you!"

Aki's face was very white. "For me? Why, Neil? You barely know me! Why would you do this for me? Why the hell would you do something like this?" Her voice rose. Then her eyes widened. "Neil… you said you stopped for a bite to eat before coming to my apartment. Did you…?"

He was saved from answering by the sound of the door slamming open, and in swept an unwelcome figure. It was Major Boyer… or rather, what was left of him. The top of his skull was gone, as was what was supposed to be contained inside. His uniform was stained with blood and gray matter, and Aki felt the gorge rise in her throat. But the major seemed completely unaware of his condition, and he raised up his arms, a mad gleam in his glazed eyes.

"I am the Zombie Queen!" he shrieked.

"Dammit, how'd he escape?" Neil muttered from somewhere behind them.

"I have come," Zombie Boyer continued, "to make you part of my army of the glorious undead!" At his words, a dozen or so soldiers in equally brainless condition came in behind their, uh, queen. "Together, we shall… we shall… we shall…" Now Boyer looked a little confused; clearly, elaborate evil plots were beyond him. Aki doubted he'd even be able to manage an evil act as simple as placing a thumbtack on Councilwoman Hee's seat.

"We shall conquer the world?" Neil suggested.

Jane smacked him. "Don't give him ideas," she hissed.

"We shall conquer the world!" Boyer shrilled. "We shall feast on the brains of all who stand in our way, and… and…" His brow furrowed. "Uh… Get them!" he commanded. The soldiers surged forward.

"Run!" Gray cried, yanking Aki to her feet and giving her a push towards the lab's rear door. Aki stumbled, caught herself, and started running. Neil was hot at her heels, followed by Jane. Gray glanced towards the chair where Ryan had been tied, and, seeing only an empty chair and gnawed ropes, he turned on his heel and followed. He could feel muscles tear, and his body wasn't responding like it should. Any moment, he knew, the zombies would be on him, hold him down, eat his brain and make him one of them. Any moment…

Any moment…

When death didn't immediately take him, Gray turned, and slowed. The zombies were still coming, but they moved at a shambling pace that could have been out_walked. _Odd; considering how fast they attacked, one would think they could at least maintain a decent walking pace. Gray shrugged and followed the others, taking his time so as not to damage himself further.

Even so, he left behind several huge peels of skin in his wake.

XXX

"We lost Gray!" Aki cried, skittering to a halt. Jane grabbed her sleeve and tried to haul her along, but Aki refused to leave her beloved behind – she wanted to salvage as much of him as possible, and she wanted that portion to include his brain. "How can you leave him behind?" Aki asked accusingly. "He's your captain!"

"He ordered us to…" Jane slowed. "Shit," she muttered, turning to sprint back the way they'd just come. Neil skittered to a halt, feet slipping on the tile. He gave Aki an inquisitive look, visibly crumbling when Aki shot him a look of pure loathing. She hadn't forgiven him for what he'd done… "Never mind," Jane said, interrupting what promised to be a particularly nasty staring contest. "Here he comes. Slowly. And there doesn't seem to be any pursuit."

"Oh, there's pursuit," Gray said as he drew closer. "And they're very doggedly following us at a slow, stumbling walk. If we keep walking, maybe taking ten minute breaks every half hour or so, we could probably lose them."

"Zombies aren't all that fast," Neil said knowledgably. "The brainless ones, anyway. Not having any mind kinda interrupts the signals that make the muscles move." He suddenly realized he'd brought attention on himself, and tried to blend in with the wall behind him. With the pallid color of his skin (how had they not noticed how pale he was before? Aki wondered), he almost _did _blend in with the wall.

"We're not through with you," Gray rumbled. "This is _your _fault."

Neil slumped. "I only did it for the boss," he mumbled dejectedly. He gave Aki a hangdog look, as though he hoped to win her sympathy. Aki just glared at him, and Neil's gaze dropped. "I… I can't help it," he said in a very small voice. "The bo – _Aki _– is the one who raised us, and… well… I live for her. In a matter of speaking, I mean. You might say that _she's _the zombie queen, not Major Boyer. And I didn't _intend _for them to all become brain-eating zombies; that's just a side effect." He looked up, saw they were still glowering at him, and said, "It's not my fault. The boss is the one who played God."

"Don't pin this on her," Gray snarled. Or tried to; one of the muscles in his left cheek ceased functioning, causing his mouth to partially go slack. Aki cringed; despite Gray's defense of her, Neil was right. This _was_ her fault…

But she wasn't about to admit that. Not when she was pissed at Neil, too, and knew it would make her feel a little bit better to see him reamed out.

"Uh, guys, I hate to interrupt," Jane said, sounding not at all contrite, "but the zombies are still coming after us," she pointed down the hallway, towards where the undead army had come in to view, Major Boyer at their head, "and if we continue to head in this direction, we'll lead them right towards the lobby, which," she made a show of checking her watch, "will be filling with people coming in for work. Since most humans can't function this early in the morning – I know _I'm _half-zombie without my caffeine fix – they'll be easy pickings for these guys. We're going to have to lead them somewhere else."

"Jane has a point," Gray said, backing away from Neil. "We need to keep them away from people." They began walking again, slowly enough that the zombies could keep up, but too quickly for the undead to close the distance. "Any ideas?" Gray turned to Aki.

Aki wondered how she had become the leader of their twisted little band. Gray was a captain; _he _should have been the natural leader here. But he was deferring to her, as Neil had been doing all evening. Was he, too, influenced by the fact that she'd been the one to revive them? Aki didn't know if that was a bad thing… or a good thing… Then she shook herself. It was a bad thing, of course!

"We need to destroy them," Aki said. "Fire always seems to work in the movies; do we have a flame thrower?"

"That could work… or it could just make them a _burning _undead army, setting fire to whatever they touch. Zombie's don't really feel pain, ya know, and in the time it takes for their bodies to be incinerated, they could do a lot of damage." Neil didn't sound particularly distressed to be discussing the destruction of his leftovers, Aki noted. Was it because they _couldn't_ be destroyed?

"This way," Aki interrupted, and they all turned down another corridor. Aki had decided to circle around back to the labs, which shouldn't have any human occupation yet; for lack of any other options, maybe they could at least lock the zombies in the labs. "I've got an idea," she said as they ran along. "When I made the serum that revived you two, I figured out how to make a serum that had the opposite effect. I didn't think I'd need it, but it might work…"

"Convenient," Neil commented. "Do you always keep magical zombie-killing serums handy?"

"With my silver bullets and wooden stakes," Aki muttered. They reached the lab, and Aki ran in, trailed by the others. Gray was last; he took up position beside the door, ready to close it and lock it. Aki ran to the freezer and pulled out a vial – a teeny, tiny vial, with only about ten milliliters of red fluid.

"_That's _supposed to bring down all the zombies?" Jane said skeptically. "I'm a little dubious about your plan."

"How is it transmitted?" Gray called from his position by the doorway.

"By… injection," Aki said weakly.

"Oh, this is going to turn out really well," Jane muttered.

"Given time, I can synthesize more and make it into an aerosol," Aki said.

"We just ran out of time," Neil said. "They're heeeeere…"

The zombies had begun shuffling in, ignoring – or perhaps not seeing – Gray as the last one filed in, and Gray hurriedly shut the door behind them. Major Boyer grinned, and lines of spittle ran down his chin. There were shreds of brain in his teeth. "Hell…loooooo…" Boyer drawled. Aki's skin crawled, and she wanted to run. But she couldn't; they were surrounded.

This hadn't been very well thought out at all.

"Okay," Jane said, "I agree that luring the zombies to the lab and locking them in was a good idea, but who the hell thought that we should be locked in with them?"

There was nowhere to run, and Aki and Jane shrank back as the zombies advanced. Jane lashed out at the foremost with her fists, only to have her hand sink into the man's ribcage. Aki screamed.

"Hey, guys, back off!" Neil said. "You're creeping out the ladies!"

"I'm not creeped out," Jane muttered, finally yanking her fist free with a wet sucking sound. "I'm just disgusted.

The zombies backed away. Boyer looked a little confused, and Aki suddenly realized why. He'd been given conflicting orders – world conquest, but to leave them, the only people standing in their way, alone. Both orders had been given by Neil. Aki whirled on him.

"Wait… so they do anythingyou tell them to?" Aki asked. Neil nodded. _"Anything?"_

"Yeah," Neil said.

"And you do whatever I tell you to do, right?"

"Uh-huh." Neil's tone was totally guileless. "You are the zombie queen, after all."

"So, if I told you to tell them to drop dead and stay dead and never again become brain- or flesh-eating zombies, would they?"

Neil finally saw where she was going. "I guess so," he said uncertainly.

"Then do it." Aki's voice was commanding.

Neil sighed, "All right. You heard her, guys. Drop dead, and don't rise up for any reason, okay?"

As one, the zombies all fell to the floor with one loud, wet thud.

Jane's brow furrowed. "That was… disappointing," she said.

"And gross," Aki said.

"It's not over," Gray said.

Aki looked up. "What?"

"Neil made two of these zombies, remember? What's to stop him from doing it again?" Gray's voice was pained. "I'm sorry, Neil, but… we can't risk that."

"Can't I just order him not to?" Aki asked.

Neil's gaze was downcast. "I need to eat," he said pathetically. "Without food, I'll die. Again. And… well… brains are what I eat. If you order me to starve to death, I'll either die or lose control and be unable to restrain myself, orders or no."

Then there was only one thing Aki could do. Neil was too dangerous to leave 'alive.' Even knowing all that Neil had done – _Sid's gone! Sid's dead! _– it was still hard to do. "Neil, I want you to drop dead, too."

He didn't immediately obey. He looked up at her and said, "You're joking, right?" He started to back away. "I mean… I won't kill many people. One a week, if you prefer. It won't be so bad, you'll see! You can just whip up that serum stuff and use it on my leftovers, and ta da, no zombies!"

"Neil," Aki said firmly. "Drop dead. Don't walk this earth again."

Neil's shoulders slumped as he realized this was a command he couldn't refuse. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell to the floor to lie beside Dr. Sid. Aki turned away, unable to look any longer. Gray came over to her, stepping over the brainless corpses to take her in his arms.

"Cheer up, Aki, we averted disaster and saved the world. I guess, anyway, since I can't imagine Boyer would have actually succeeded in world conquest when he couldn't even keep his own gender straight. We did it!" Gray exulted, pumping his right fist in the air. "We won!"

With a wet _thunk, _Gray's right arm plopped off, to the floor. Gray just gaped, and Aki stifled a gasp of horror. She went over to Gray, intending to comfort him but not really sure how.

"I'll fix this," she vowed, her hand on Gray's shoulder. She moved in closer. "I'll do everything in my power." She raised herself to her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his, trying not to flinch away from the dry, rubber texture that didn't even feel remotely human. Gray's body might be cold and dead, but his emotions still lived, and she could feel the heat of his passion as he returned the kiss eagerly, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, and then…

…then Aki had to pull away, face scrunched into an expression of disgust.

"Gray?" Aki asked.

"Mmmph?"

"Was that… was that your _tongue_ I just swallowed?"

XXX

"Your body is degrading too fast." Aki backed away from the microscope, an expression of defeat on her face. She looked over at Gray – or what was left of him, now that his limbs were falling off, limb by limb – and winced. "It… it is stabilizing, but… but I'm not sure you can be saved."

Gray's expression was unreadable, because all the muscles in his face had gone slack. "Is… there any… thing you… can do?" His voice was slow and thick; only by listening carefully could Aki interpret his words. He still had most of his tongue, but not enough to prevent a speech impediment.

"No," Aki whispered. "By the time I found something that _might _work… you'd be gone."

"Then… I want you to do something for me. Aki… Let me die, Aki," Gray said.

Aki thought she didn't hear him right. Maybe he'd said, "Let me fly?" But Gray continued. "I can't live like this… I don't want to live like this. Just find a way to end it now; I don't want to suffer any longer."

_That _was clear enough. "I can't… Gray, don't make me do this. Don't make me watch you die again."

"I'm already dead," Gray pointed out. "My spirit just needs to be reminded of that fact."

There was a way she could do it, a way she could end his miserable existence quickly. A simple injection of the compound she'd come up with while whipping up the resurrection serum that would have the reverse effects – the serum she'd wanted to use to destroy the zombies. There was no reason it wouldn't work on Gray.

"Get him on to this table," Aki told Jane. The other woman complied without comment; the situation had deeply affected her, as well. The corporal lifted Gray to the metal table as Aki prepped the hypospray. "I'm just going to inject it into your heart," she said. "It… it'll be quick, I promise." She opened Gray's shirt and ran her hand over his chest. What had once been well-defined muscle under hot skin was now rigid, cold, and waxy. Gray grabbed Aki's wrist with this remaining hand, cradling it.

"Do it," he said. Aki pressed the spray to the previous injection point and pressed the trigger. As the serum made its way through Gray's body, she pressed her lips to his. Beneath her hands, his body began to stiffen, and Aki pulled away. "Good bye," she said.

"Good bye," Gray breathed. And then his mockery of a life slipped away.

Jane stayed silent throughout, but she gave her captain one final salute.

XXX

Jane, Aki found out several hours later, was fine. Her body had stabilized, and her cells had continued dividing until her entire body was alive, truly alive, as though the events in the hangar had never transpired. If Gray or Neil hadn't had their Problems, they would've fully recovered.

Aki slumped into her chair, burying her face in her hands. She had no idea how she was going to explain why the bulk of the USMF army was lying dead with empty craniums in her lab. She didn't know how she was going to explain Jane's presence, or why Gray and Neil's bodies – which should have been in their graves – were now in a freezer. She didn't know what had happened to Ryan, if he had recovered completely or if he was, even now, creating another zombie army.

All she knew was that she was alone.

Jane entered the lab, but Aki didn't look up. It wasn't like the woman could tell her anything to soothe her, after all. She just sat down silently beside Aki, and Aki found herself pouring her heart out to the other woman.

"I… I just wanted to live happily ever after with someone to love," Aki said dully. "I saved the world; I think I _deserve _happiness, don't I?"

Jane regarded Aki thoughtfully. "You know, it's still possible," she said slowly. "You don't have anyone… I don't have anyone… and I seem to be a nicer, more caring person ever since you revived me. Maybe we could…" Aki stared at her in confusion, and Jane clarified, "I'm just saying, I'm willing to give it a try, if you are." She held out her hand towards Aki.

It slowly sank in, what the other woman was offering. And when it did, it occurred to Aki that the idea wasn't totally objectionable. In fact, Jane was a rather attractive woman… and they'd already slept together, in a matter of speaking. Maybe they could give it a shot… "Okay," Aki grinned, taking Jane's offered hand and giving it a squeeze. Maybe it wasn't what she'd hoped, but a happy ending was a happy ending.

XXX

Somewhere, beyond the barrier, Ryan ran hooting through the barren landscape, his body stabilized and no longer zombie-fied, naked as a jay bird and reveling in his freedom.

The End

And there's Unusual Pairing Number Five… Sorry, I had to do it. I know, it's fast, especially after Gray's death, but this isn't exactly a serious story, remember? Don't kill me, 'kay? Being a zombie would really ruin my life… And no, I'm not planning a sequel about Ryan. But, if anyone else wants to do it…


End file.
